The present invention is directed to bicycles and, more particularly, to various features of a bicycle display apparatus that displays various characteristics of a bicycling environment.
Bicycle computers, often termed cycle computer, ordinarily includes a display that typically displays information regarding the bicycle's state of motion, such as bicycle speed or crank rotation speed (cadence). In order to display such information, the display often includes light-emitting elements such as light-emitting diodes (LED's) and/or a backlit liquid crystal display elements. Turning ON the power switch or some other switch activates the LED's and/or the backlit crystal display elements.
In recent years, there has been a rising demand for an increase in the amount of information that can be displayed on a typical bicycle computer. For example, it has been desired to display, in addition to speed and cadence information, information on the state of motion of the bicycle, such as the total distance traveled, information on the state of the bicycle itself, such as the current transmission gear position, and information related to the bicycling environment, such as the time of day. In the case of LED's, displaying such information requires an increase in the number of LED's and assigning particular meanings to the areas illuminated. Similarly, in the case of a liquid crystal display device, displaying such information requires an increase in the amount of light permeable and non-light permeable areas and assigning particular meanings to the added areas. In either case, information on the display is displayed by alternating between two display states, i.e., the ON and OFF states of the individual elements of the LED's or the light-permeable and non-light-permeable elements of liquid crystal displays, thus complicating construction.
Where a large amount of information is to be displayed, the problem exists that the display cannot handle a sufficient amount of information, thus making the display uninteresting or making the information difficult to intuitively understand. Moreover, since the area of the display for a bicycle is limited by such factors as the capacity of the power supply and the size of the display, the information displayed becomes small and even more difficult to intuitively understand when a large amount of information is to be displayed in such a limited area